Serve Together

8th Annual Family of New Paltz Turkey Trot 11/24/11

SERVE TOGETHER
at the:3rd Annual UlsterCorps Coat + Winter Wish List Drive
December 1-20, 2011
From now through December 20th, 2011, UlsterCorps will be collecting donations of Coats and Holiday Wish List items requested by local service agencies. Special thanks to AJ of Royal King Cleaners who, for the third year, is generously offering his two stores as collection sites for coats and cleaning them for free. Other Holiday wishlist items should be dropped off with the specific agency that requested them. Volunteers willing to help with pickups would be greatly appreciated! If you can help please contact UlsterCorps at 481-0331 or email ulstercorps@gmail.com .

Second Annual UlsterCorps Service Sprint
Saturday October 29, 2011, 11am
at Williams Lake/Hudson River Valley Resorts
434 Williams Lake Rd, off Binnewater Road, Rosendale, NY
Be a part of the event by walking, running, volunteering or sponsoring it! Volunteers are needed to help with setup, registration, water stops, cleanup and to haunt the course in their scariest costumes.More Info/RSVP or 481-0331 for more info.

Shandaken Phoenicia Rotary Civil Emergency Response Team Clean Up Volunteers shoveling river sand out of the streets of Phoenicia between storms Labor Day weekend to prevent sand from clogging drains. The sand was trucked to the highway department and will be recycled on icy winter roads.

7th Annual Woodstock Volunteers’ Day
Saturday, August 20th, 2011, 1-5pm
Volunteer’s Day is a day in which the members of our community come together to celebrate the fact that we have such wonderful neighbors. It recognizes all the charitable, community and service organizations in our community. Volunteers are given a Certificate of Appreciation from the Woodstock community, a music festival is performed in their honor, the volunteers are treated to lunch and their children/grandchildren are provided a playful activity.More info/RSVP or call 679-2713Ã—3.

Rosendale Street Festival
Saturday & Sunday, July 23rd-24th, 2011
Main Street, Rosendale
Volunteer orientation Thursday July 21st at 6:00pm at the Rosendale Recreation Center.
The Street Festival is an all-volunteer run and produced event. Please consider becoming part of the team! Help out before, during, or after the Festival!More info/RSVP or call 658-8563.

Thanks so much to all the volunteers and everyone who participated in Lets Move Ulster! Special thanks to Drew and the folks at the Center for Creative Education for organizing such a great event!! photo: Daniel OBrien

The 14th Annual Chili Bowl (our February Serve Together event) was FABULOUS! WSW raised $15,000+ on over 750 hand-made bowls, and over 800 attendees helped us grub on nearly 60 gallons of chili! A big THANK YOU to everyone who attended, volunteered, donated food, bought bowls, danced, ate, and reveled in the fiesta fun!

Monday January 17th, 2011 MLK National Day of ServiceServe Together Launch
Volunteer Day at RVAA + After-Party at Jack & Lunaâ€™s Cafe

UlsterCorps commemorated Martin Luther Kingâ€™s vision for bringing communities together by launching its new â€œServe Togetherâ€ program on Monday, January 17th, 2011. Serve Together highlights volunteer opportunities in the community that family and friends can do together.

Launch announcement:

Volunteers at Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption, part of the UlsterCorps Serve Together volunteer event on Martin Luther King Day 2011 - thanks to everyone who helped out!

January 17th 2011, is the 25th anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday. “UlsterCorps invites you to turn the day off into a day on and join us in a fun and rewarding day of service honoring Dr. King’s legacy,” says Beth McLendon, co-director of UlsterCorps, the volunteer network whose mission is to link volunteers with agencies in need in Ulster County. “Community members, civic groups and churches have done so much to promote volunteering in Ulster County. We’d like to thank them, support and augment their efforts by helping to get the word out about both long and short term volunteer opportunities, and hosting a gathering to bring these different groups together during National Service Week.”

UlsterCorps will host a “Serve Together” volunteer gathering for all those in the community who volunteer at Jack & Luna Cafe, from 4pm-6pm, Mon. Jan. 17th. Live music and some delicious food and drinks will be on offer. Many of the volunteers are helping out at Rondout Valley Animals for Adoption between 12pm-6pm the same day where they will learn about the important work shelters do and how they can be a part of it. The event is open to volunteers of all ages, especially families. Jack & Luna Cafe is at 3928 Main Street in Stone Ridge, NY. The shelter is five minutes south of Jack & Luna at 4628 Rt. 209, Accord, NY 12404.

“Since we started UlsterCorps, we’ve met volunteers of all ages; some are serving for the first time in their lives, others have been giving back to their community for decades” said McLendon. “Our goal is to make volunteering as rewarding an experience as possible for both the volunteers and the agencies. We want to create an opportunity for fellowship, to honor and celebrate Ulster County’s volunteers, young and old, and bring a little more “community”–and fun–back into the service experience.

The UlsterCorps website has featured hundreds of service opportunities for Ulster County residents since it began on MLK Day in 2009. A range of volunteer events are planned for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of National Service, Monday, January 17th, and throughout that week. UlsterCorps is commemorating Dr. King’s vision for empowering individuals, strengthening communities, bridging barriers, and creating solutions to the challenges of our community like hunger, homelessness and joblessness with its planned events.

UlsterCorps will launch it’s new “Serve Together” program on and during the week of the Martin Luther King Day of Service with a series of open houses, volunteer training sessions, and other service events. The MLK Day animal shelter volunteer day and after-party is the first of what UlsterCorps hopes will be a regular community event, featuring a different agency and local venue each month.

“Volunteers who serve together and have a positive experience usually return to that service, and often bring others with them,” said UlsterCorps President Rik Flynn. “When friends or co-workers come out to serve together, they have a great time. When a father and son tackle a volunteer project together, it brings them closer. When our seniors realize that they have something to give back by volunteering together, it makes them feel young again. We’ve started Serve Together to create more and more of these experiences.”